THE CREED I BELIEVE

I believe the first language of my senses is art.
I believe art triples the oxygen in my lungs and heart.
Do I not deserve to breathe this much?

I believe when I create, I choose to give my suffering space too.
I believe when I make art in a field, nature and my-self breaks all bondage.
I believe the strength of my artistic rainbow, can be a rainbow in someone else’s life.

I believe as a child-less woman, I have to give birth to art.
And save my sadness in a mason jar for another day.
I believe my hours are my gift to art.



 

VISITING: A Poem

It's been far too long

A few months ago
I found compassion
again

Today I will practice not to
                                                                                          dislike

Sometimes we need the dead
To talk us off the ledge

 

SUNDAY GINGER CHICKEN

A delicious and quick recipe, so let's get to it....

Ingredients:
1-2 inches piece of ginger (cut in small slivers)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp molasses
1/2 Tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 Lbs boneless chicken thighs
1 Tbsp. olive oil (use 2tbsp if your chicken shows zero signs of fat.  Mine had a little fat.)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large shallot, chopped (if your shallots are small use 3, if not, use 1. Trust me it will be enough.)
1/4 cup water

Preparation:

In a large bowl combine ginger, fish  sauce, molasses and soy sauce.  Mix well until you see the molasses has watered down.  Then cut the chicken into cubes (small-medium so you have a variety).  Add the chicken to sauce, making sure the chicken is well coated.  Let chicken marinate for at least 20 minutes (overnight is good but not necessary).  While the chicken is marinating, cut your garlic and shallots.

In a large pan (or wok), heat the olive oil and soften/slightly brown garlic and shallots.  Next, spoon out the chicken from the bowl and add it to the pan.  Keep flame at around medium.  If you have an excess of marinade sauce in your bowl, reserve it until the chicken is partially done.

Once the chicken is partially done, add the remaining marinade to the pan along with the 1/4 cup of water.  Cook chicken evenly, stirring often.  Watch your flame and if need be lower it - you don't want to dry out or burn your chicken.  Once your chicken brown a little and your sauce thickens, sprinkle in some brown sugar.  Literally just a pinch or two.  Don't over sweeten.  Keep stirring for another 5-8 minutes, then serve over jasmine rice with steamed vegetables of your choice. 

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.  Enjoy!

SUNDAY PECAN PIE

Thank you Native Americans for introducing us to the Pecan.

I give you my first serious attempt at pie.

Yum. 

 

Tai Chi by Chen Man-Ch'ing

One of the most beautiful videos I've seen of Tai Chi  http://youtu.be/vsDPy7zMrA4

Professor Cheng Man-Ch'ing

http://chengmanching.net/

 

Of all the modern Tai Chi masters, none have had the impact of the late Cheng Man-Ch'ing. As a child growing up in China, Cheng suffered from a chronic lung condition and a local doctor suggested that he take up Tai Chi to remediate his condition. Cheng proved so good a student that he not only learned Tai Chi, he also cured himself of his illness through his practice.

In many ways Cheng was a prodigy. He grew up to become renowned in his own country as a master of the "Five Excellences": painting, poetry, calligraphy, medicine and martial arts. When one considers the vast learning and diligent study it takes to master even one of these disciplines, Cheng's achievement becomes even more remarkable. His skill as a physician was said to be particularly uncanny and it is in this capacity that he was brought the the attention of Yang Ch'eng-Fu, the standard bearer and lineage heir to the great Yang Lu-Chan, founder of the Yang Family Style of Tai Chi. It seems that Yang's wife was extremely ill and the most prominent doctors had had little success trying to find a cure for her illness. Yang had heard of Cheng's reputation as a doctor and he agreed to examine her. Cheng was able to successfully restore MadameYang to health and in gratitude, Mrs. Yang persuaded her husband to accept him as a Tai Chi student. Cheng studied daily with Master Yang for years, enduring many hardships to learn the art. Although he later rose to become a great master of Tai Chi himself, Cheng, in typical modesty, always denigrated his own skill with respect to his teacher's. "If Tai Chi was a human body," he was fond of saying, "all I possess is the thumb. My teacher (Master Yang) has the whole body!" No small praise from this highly accomplished individual.

After an illustrious career as a physician, senator and martial artist in Taiwan, Professor Cheng emigrated to the U.S. where he ran a large Tai Chi School in New York's Chinatown section. Much to the detriment of us all, the old master departed this life on March 26th 1975, but his legacy lives on through his poetry, his painting, those he healed and those he taught.

Live The Questions...

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves ...
Don't search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

 

The Guidance Of The Still

Patience is related to authentic spiritual courage. It is deep faith that the universe is unfolding as it

should, even when things are not happening

according to our own plans or timetables. All we

can do is act with integrity, in accordance with our priorities and the guidance of the still, small voice within.

After that, we must surrender all attachments to the results.

 

From Pocketful of Miracles

     by Joan Borysenko, PH. D